Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system is an integral part of modern day buildings. HVAC system helps to maintain thermal comfort and ventilation needs of the occupants in the buildings. HVAC system requires a considerable amount of energy. In general, HVAC system accounts for nearly 40% or more of the total energy cost in building. There are solutions that do provide the much-needed energy efficiency for the HVAC system. One of such solutions is an automatic control on the HVAC system. The automatic control provides a flexible adjustment to thermal comfort and reduces HVAC system energy cost by reducing excessive cooling, heating, and equipment power.
Another typical solution prevalent in use these days often controls the temperature or flow rate of the conditioned air in an occupied room according to parameters of the room, such as temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide level, etc. This method can automatically adjust the thermal comfort to a suitable level and reduce the HVAC system energy cost to some extent.
Further, temperature sensors may not be accurate. There may be certain amount of error that may exist in temperature sensors. A certain temperature may be comfortable for an individual, however, it may not be comfortable for other individual.
However, it cannot take care of the personal thermal comfort preference of the room occupant. This is because different individuals may have different needs for heating and cooling.
Therefore, there is required a more efficient HVAC control system and method in order to provide better energy efficiency. An efficient solution is also required as temperature sensors require regular calibration to maintain acceptable accuracy and allow HVAC system to be controlled in a reasonable manner.